Search form

Blackwater's New Frontier: Their Own Private Africa

Blackwater's New Frontier: Their Own Private Africa

Will military contractors blur the line between aid workers and hired guns?

by

Bruce Falconer and Daniel Schulman

"You give me money,
I don't care who you are." It was late October, and Zimbabwe's defense
attaché, a soft-spoken, thick-shouldered lieutenant colonel, was
explaining his country's freewheeling approach to business in the
banquet room of the Liaison hotel on Capitol Hill. Mingling around him
were representatives from some of the world's best-known private
security and military contracting firms, gathered to explore their
prospects in the industry's next frontier: Africa. None betrayed any
eagerness to do business with Robert Mugabe, notwithstanding assurances
from the beaming attaché that Zimbabwe-"the second-largest economy in
southern Africa"-remains strong despite 231 million percent annual
inflation. But there were plenty of other avenues to explore, including
a recent shake-up in the US military's command structure that seemed to
promise new demand for firms like Blackwater (which recently changed
its name to Xe), Triple Canopy, and DynCorp.

The
guests, dressed in business attire and the odd military uniform, were
gathered for the annual summit of the International Peace Operations
Association (IPOA), a trade group. Industry reps had
traveled from as far as Dubai and Malta to discuss this year's
topic-the Pentagon's newly established US Africa Command, or AFRICOM-and
to browse booths hawking everything from armored vehicles to high-risk
insurance. Arrayed on a table in the back were piles of corporate
literature, complete with pictures of Third World children and Western
contractors delivering aid, a popular industry meme. Among the
big-ticket attractions was a keynote address from William E. "Kip"
Ward, the four-star general in charge of AFRICOM.

The event drew record attendance, and industry veterans were not
surprised. "Everybody's always been interested in Africa," Chris
Taylor, a former Blackwater executive and now a vice president at
Ohio-based Mission Essential Personnel, explained over drinks in the
hotel bar. "It represents a huge opportunity for business."

Africa is no stranger to armed security contractors; the industry in
its modern incarnation was born when mercenary firms like Executive
Outcomes and Sandline International fought for embattled African
governments during the 1990s, allegedly in exchange for diamond and oil
concessions. Since then, security contractors have gained broader
acceptance. But serious concerns remain about the role they might play
in their old stomping grounds.

"There is a crying, desperate need for some of the services that
these people provide," said Alex Yearsley, the head of special projects
at Global Witness, a London-based human rights group. "There's no
question they can do it. It's a question of when you're going
to have a questionable regime hiring these people to kick out
indigenous communities or [gain access to] mining areas. That's when it
gets problematic."

To companies seeking entrée to the continent, the military's new
Africa command could provide a key foothold. To pursue its mission of
security, diplomacy, and development, AFRICOM's
outreach and partnership director, Paul Saxton, told a packed audience
at the conference, the command plans to enlist the help of the private
sector. "We're reaching out."

Reliance on contractors, though, could add to the controversy already engulfing AFRICOM,
especially the fears that the military's forays into development work
could blur the line between aid workers and soldiers or hired guns.
Taylor, the former Blackwater executive, downplayed such concerns.
AFRICOM, he says, will likely train "partner
nations" to provide a secure environment for humanitarian projects. "It
doesn't mean that a bunch of dudes with guns are going to show up with
bags of rice."

Perhaps not, but critics have also accused the Pentagon of using africom
as a fig leaf for broader geopolitical objectives; they view the
command as little more than a strategic maneuver to counter China's
pursuit of Africa's natural resources. "I want to see it succeed," said
the security director of a well-known NGO who is nonetheless wary of AFRICOM's
mission. "I want to see development that is focused on empowerment, not
as some tactic for US interests. That's not development. That's
manipulation."

Africans, too, have greeted the Pentagon's plans with suspicion. As
US officials toured the continent in search of a location for the new
command's headquarters, they met with so much opposition that they
eventually decided to operate from Germany for the time being. This
frosty reception should have come as no surprise, Eeben Barlow, the
former South African soldier who founded Executive Outcomes, commented
on his blog in November. "Looking at...US administrations' record in
Africa, it is one long script of betrayal, destabilisation, political
blackmail and even worse." African nations, he noted, "remain extremely
reluctant and wary to allow the wolf to guard their sheep."

But AFRICOM's start-up problems have not dampened
the enthusiasm of Barlow's cohorts in the security industry. They also
see opportunities in other federal initiatives-such as a massive, and
little-known, State Department contract, the Africa Peacekeeping
Program. Worth some $1 billion over five years, it covers work in
countries including Somalia, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of
Congo, everything from logistics support and construction to training
and advising African troops, flying aerial surveillance missions, and
improving coastal security. Triple Canopy and Blackwater are said to be
among those that submitted proposals.

At the IPOA conference, we spoke with two Blackwater representatives, who during that morning's panel discussion had taken seats beside AFRICOM's
Paul Saxton. With Somali pirates' seizure of a Ukrainian ship carrying
33 battle tanks fresh in the news, they told us, the company saw
opportunity in the area of "maritime security." In mid-October,
Blackwater had announced that its 183-foot, helipad-equipped ship, the McArthur,
was standing by to assist shipping companies in the area. (After being
contacted by at least 70 shipping and insurance firms interested in its
anti-piracy services, Blackwater in December held three days of
meetings in London with prospective clients.) But the core of
Blackwater's ambition in Africa is to transition away from the
high-profile "personal protection" work that has brought it so much
opprobrium in Iraq and Afghanistan; to that end, its representatives
told us, it has opened an office in Nairobi, Kenya, the better to go
after opportunities to train African military and security forces.

If the sheer number of companies represented at the ipoa
conference is any indication, Blackwater's envoys will run into plenty
of their competitors-and that makes some observers uneasy. "You start
bringing these people on the scene, they come in as trainers, but at
the drop of a hat they can be other things," said the ngo
security director. "They have skills, they have something to bring, but
it's a double-edged sword, and it depends on which edge is being
presented."

Further

Surrounded by a massive police presence, the country's top law enforcement official told a group of carefully screened students at Georgetown's Law School that, "In this great land, the government does not tell you what to think or what to say." In his speech, only announced the day before, Sessions went on to denounce uppity knee-taking football players and defend his boss' call, hours before, for them to be fired. We may need to upgrade the ole Irony Alert buzzer. It can't keep up.